Why do economist obsess with finance so much? When you look at the raw practical fundamentals Japan's potential meets obvious caps, even the most sensible fiscal policy can't magic resources out of thin air. The Plaza accord was just a bit of turbulence at best, not the end all of the economy for decades and decades.

It is a small island with few natural resources at odds with nearby China and Russia where it might obtain them, very densely populated, competing with other asian tigers in terms of both the secondary and the tertiary sector, constantly overshadowed by America. It has always been technologically advanced too, meaning it had no "catch up" period like the asian tigers except the rebuilding immediately after the war, which fundamentally is a good thing of course but skews our perception of the statistics.

Its boom in the 80s was due to the postwar leap in technology and being more open to trade with the US after their unconditional surrender and return to democracy. It all came to fruition and they were ahead of the curve for a few decades in terms of new electronics and computing due to their highly educated society with few other opportunities for profit besides going full into manufacturing and R&D. However eventually papa America realized the future wasn't space rockets but computing and got into that in the 80s. They were in fact paranoid about Japan's economy growing and overtaking even America, it was kind of like pic related but for tech instead of fighter jets.

>>63945795
Time is a flat circle